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FIA Formula 3 European Championship to kick off the second half of its season

The European Championship regulars will be joined by three guest drivers

After a six-week summer break, the young FIA Formula 3 European championship drivers will be back in action, this weekend: at Nuremberg’s Norisring, they will kick off the second half of their 2013 season.

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Track: Norisring

Track length: 2,300 kilometres

Lap record FIA F3: Raffaele Marciello 2012 (0:49.138 minutes)

Distance: 42 laps

Raffaele Marciello (Prema Powerteam) will travel to the 2.3-kilometre street circuit as championship leader. But the Italian who is supported by the Ferrari Driver Academy has got Felix Rosenqvist (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport) right on his back. The Swede won all the three races at the Red Bull Ring, thus reducing Marciello’s lead on him to 27.5 points.

While the hunter, Felix Rosenqvist, boosted his self-confidence with four wins in the latest four races, the hunted, Raffaele Marciello, has fond memories of the Norisring. Last year, he won the third race of the Formula 3 Euro Series meeting, there, and defeated – inter alia, coming champion Daniel Juncadella who had to settle for finishing second. Behind title contenders Marciello and Rosenqvist, Lucas Auer (Prema Powerteam) is waiting for a mistake of the two championship leaders. With 165 points on his tally, the Austrian currently holds third position in the championship and just can’t wait for contesting his debut race at the Norisring.

In the season highlight of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, in Nuremberg, the German colours will be represented by Sven Müller (ma-con), Lucas Wolf (URD Rennsport) and André Rudersdorf (ma-con). Wolf celebrated his biggest success in the season to date at the Red Bull Ring by finishing third while Müller still is waiting for his first podium. With three fourth places – at Hockenheim and Brands Hatch – he several times came close to realising this goal – but never quite made it, in the end. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Rudersdorf, the youngest of the three German drivers, displayed a steep learning curve in the 2013 season of the planet’s most competitive young-gun series and already succeeded in scoring a point.

At the Norisring, the European Championship regulars will be joined by three guest drivers: the already known Daniil Kvyat (Carlin) and Alexander Sims (ThreeBond with T Sport) as well as Nick Cassidy (Eurointernational). Briton Sims will race the T-Sport car that abandoned by William Buller (Fortec Motorports) when he switched to Fortec Motorsports. Sims already made a guest appearance for ThreeBond with T Sport in 2012 and won one of the Formula 3 races at the Nürburgring right away. Meanwhile, Kiwi Nick Cassidy comes to Europe as two-time champion in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series. He plans to contest the rest of the season as team-mate of Tom Blomqvist (Eurointernational). Other than for Sims who already finished second at the Norisring in 2009, the street circuit in the heart of Nuremberg represents virgin soil for Cassidy.

Sven Müller (ma-con): “You may think that the Norisring is an easy circuit but far from it: there are tough brake point’s und a lot of bumps and driving the car at the very limit is extremely difficult. In addition, the track at extremely short and this means that the field will be extremely close together, this weekend. I expect the spectators to witness three thrilling Formula 3 races with a lot of action. My performances in the past weeks were okay although I have to admit that I expected to do slightly better, this year. I hope to finally make it to the podium, at the Norisring.